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Sorry, but unless you were born with a trust fund, a million bucks in real money is still enough to change the course of the rest of your life. You aren't goin

Sorry, but unless you were born with a trust fund, a million bucks in real money is still enough to change the course of the rest of your life. You aren't going to be buying your own island, but you certainly won't have the worries that most people have, as long as you're smart with it, as in living like you don't have it.

richardjordan 14y ago
I've been there too (i.e. sold a company in the $1-2million range). Once taxes etc. are taken out it's more like half that and that's just two to four years of salary for most folks starting companies of the type we discuss on HN most of the time (given most founders of Silicon Valley style startups can make $100-200k elsewhere). No-one is saying that getting $1mm is a bad thing, just that for most start ups folks on HN are starting or working on pre-money valuations for angel rounds are higher than that... hence the starting line comment. It's the usual semantic question of what people mean by startup and founder. However my primary point is that it's nonsense to say being broke is better than not being broke when dealing with the stresses of starting a company. EDIT: Hm... not sure how one can be downvoted for clarifying my point in response to a comment. Meh, I guess I still don't understand the way HN works.
- OldSchool 14y ago
  I hear ya, broke is only good because you have nothing to lose and need is a strong motivator. It may be fun for a newly-funded startup guy to count up his illiquid shares and say "I have $X now (in monopoly money)" but as you said, it's not over until your shares are actually sold, taxes are paid and indemnifications have been released. (saw your EDIT: I don't know how downvoting works either - it wasn't me!!!)
- ericabiz 14y ago
  I started my hosting company in 2001. If you were in the Valley at the time, you'd know it was a terrible time to be there. No one was hiring. I am a college dropout and had no degree. I sent literally hundreds of resumes out to every conceivable tech company. Never even got a call back. Newspapers (remember those?) were full of smug pundits telling us "The Internet is dead!" or "The Internet is a fad!" Huge companies were going bust by the day. This was the way I made it work. I wasn't about to go back home to Indiana and live with my parents again, so I hustled. 2001 was a totally different timeframe and mindset than exists now in the tech industry. It's easy to look back, 11 years later, and say "It's easy" or "Startups get valuations 10x higher than that pre-revenue" or "She could have just gone to Google and made that much money." None of that was happening in the tech bust of 2001.
  - richardjordan 14y ago
    I remember Silicon Valley after the crash very well. Tough times. Good job finding a productive way out of it at such a young age without a degree. I got a job when my dot com went bust - very stressful times.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- nitrogen 14y ago
  EDIT: Hm... not sure how one can be downvoted for clarifying my point in response to a comment. Meh, I guess I still don't understand the way HN works. These things usually have a way of working themselves out. It could have been as simple as a misplaced thumb trying to scroll on a phone.

richardjordan 14y ago

I've been there too (i.e. sold a company in the $1-2million range). Once taxes etc. are taken out it's more like half that and that's just two to four years of salary for most folks starting companies of the type we discuss on HN most of the time (given most founders of Silicon Valley style startups can make $100-200k elsewhere). No-one is saying that getting $1mm is a bad thing, just that for most start ups folks on HN are starting or working on pre-money valuations for angel rounds are higher than that... hence the starting line comment. It's the usual semantic question of what people mean by startup and founder. However my primary point is that it's nonsense to say being broke is better than not being broke when dealing with the stresses of starting a company. EDIT: Hm... not sure how one can be downvoted for clarifying my point in response to a comment. Meh, I guess I still don't understand the way HN works.

OldSchool 14y ago
I hear ya, broke is only good because you have nothing to lose and need is a strong motivator. It may be fun for a newly-funded startup guy to count up his illiquid shares and say "I have $X now (in monopoly money)" but as you said, it's not over until your shares are actually sold, taxes are paid and indemnifications have been released. (saw your EDIT: I don't know how downvoting works either - it wasn't me!!!)
ericabiz 14y ago
I started my hosting company in 2001. If you were in the Valley at the time, you'd know it was a terrible time to be there. No one was hiring. I am a college dropout and had no degree. I sent literally hundreds of resumes out to every conceivable tech company. Never even got a call back. Newspapers (remember those?) were full of smug pundits telling us "The Internet is dead!" or "The Internet is a fad!" Huge companies were going bust by the day. This was the way I made it work. I wasn't about to go back home to Indiana and live with my parents again, so I hustled. 2001 was a totally different timeframe and mindset than exists now in the tech industry. It's easy to look back, 11 years later, and say "It's easy" or "Startups get valuations 10x higher than that pre-revenue" or "She could have just gone to Google and made that much money." None of that was happening in the tech bust of 2001.
- richardjordan 14y ago
  I remember Silicon Valley after the crash very well. Tough times. Good job finding a productive way out of it at such a young age without a degree. I got a job when my dot com went bust - very stressful times.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
nitrogen 14y ago
EDIT: Hm... not sure how one can be downvoted for clarifying my point in response to a comment. Meh, I guess I still don't understand the way HN works. These things usually have a way of working themselves out. It could have been as simple as a misplaced thumb trying to scroll on a phone.